The renaming of the school honors Stryker, the medical inventor and founder of the Stryker Corp., which is now one of Kalamazoo’s major economic powers and a leader in the field of medical technology.

The renaming honors not only Dr. Stryker, but also Ronda Stryker, his granddaughter, and her husband and WMU trustee William Johnston. Their anonymous gift of $100 million gift three years laid the foundation for the school. They were revealed as the donors on Tuesday.

The school will welcome its first class of 50 medical students this fall.

Throughout the years the community has seen numerous gifts from families such as the Strykers, from the Kalamazoo Civic Auditorium (a gift from W.E. Upjohn) to events such as the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard and organizations like the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.

This latest gift is not just a building but an educational effort that has the potential to build on Dr. Homer Stryker’s legacy of medical innovation and excellence. The school also is a strategic investment in the health of the region, infusing downtown Kalamazoo with a new lifeline that will bolster the economic vitality of not only the Kalamazoo’s core business district but of the region through an infusion of students and educators, services and learning.

The medical school has already inspired community collaboration. In addition to Stryker and Johnston’s gift, the Stryker Corp. had made a sizeable gift to the school, of an undisclosed amount. Both area hospitals, Borgess Medical Center and Bronson Methodist Hospital, are serving as pillars of the school. The hospital is on the W.E. Upjohn campus in a building that was donated by MPI Research of Mattawan, which is led by William Parfet, great-grandson of W.E. Upjohn, the founder of The Upjohn Co.

We hope the Homer Stryker M.D. Medical School inspires doctors and other health professionals to make their communities healthier places in the future — and that it inspires corporate and philanthropic powers to continue investing in the health of our community.